The Gloomy and Timid Princess Heads to the Academy

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It was strange.

Not as unpleasant as mana, but I couldn’t shake the thought that something was off.

It felt akin to when I touched the liquid monster I ordered online out of sheer boredom back when I was a guy.

So weird.

At first glance, it seemed like pure mana untouched by the will of the God, but with a little focus, it felt completely different.

It was as if various random things were forcibly mixed together to mimic mana.

If I had to quantify it, that’d be it. Frankly, I didn’t even know if it was mana.

No, more importantly, I didn’t know what it actually was, but it clearly healed Dokan.

Seriously… what the heck is that?

For now, I was wondering if the protagonist had randomly come across some strange event or item.

Since protagonists often gain power by jumping off waterfalls or finding hidden rooms… I had thought that someday he might bring back a power-up item.

“…What’s that?”

I didn’t expect something that odd to be brought back.

If only he had used mana, I could have shrugged it off as him being stubborn, but with this, I couldn’t ignore it.

Common sense would dictate that I should be curious about my friend handling something so bizarre.

“…Hoyeon. You can’t tell anyone about what I’m about to say.”

“Ugh… Okay?”

Was he suddenly trying to confess or something? Dokan held a finger to his lips, urging the utmost secrecy.

What on earth is it? It’s making me curious.

“Okay, I’ll keep it a secret. So tell me. What exactly is that…?”

“Decomposed and refined magic. Professor Georg gave it to me.”

Magic… which is the power the God deals with.

What? This is definitely mana. I have no idea what he had to do to make it unrecognizable.

More importantly, I didn’t know why that psycho professor had it or why he gave it to Dokan.

It was so unexpected that I couldn’t even form a proper impression.

…Wait a second. If that magic is inside his body, it’s incredibly dangerous, right? They say it burns from the inside out in books.

“…Dokan, are you okay?! Stay still… I’ll do something about it!”

When it comes to handling mana, normally you’d need the God’s permission, but given the situation, there wasn’t time for such procedures.

I could handle mana to some degree, but whether I could handle this twisted mana was uncertain.

I had recently failed to even handle holy power and mana, so how could I deal with something so much more severe?

…But I have no choice. He’s my friend!

If it gets really bad, I’ll just call the God…!

“Yeah. Like I said earlier, I’m totally fine. I’m not in pain. You’re worried about the holy power, right?”

Unlike me, who was anxious, Dokan was the very picture of calmness. The more relaxed he was, the more anxious I felt.

He looked kind of resigned or something.

“Hoyeon, you can feel holy power, right?”

“Yeah. But… why are you suddenly asking that?”

It wasn’t something I had to hide, so I answered him, but something felt off. Why was he making me so uneasy?

“Then it means you can see it. Good. Showing you is faster than saying it a hundred times.”

With that, Dokan pulled out a small pouch from his pocket.

I had grown irritated with the way he kept me hanging and making me anxious.

“What’s inside is a saint’s necklace. Professor Georg threw it at me saying it was useless… but it still emits holy power.”

If what Dokan said is true, the holy power should have thickened, but it didn’t seem like it.

However, the moment he opened the pouch, the amount of holy power pouring out made me almost gag.

“…Ugh!”

The smell was so overwhelming that I nearly lost my composure, but when I thought that same holy power hit Dokan, I snapped back to reality.

“…Dokan!!… Huh…?”

If I knew anything, Dokan should have turned to ash by now.

But Dokan was grinning, proudly wearing the necklace.

Ah, what a relief.

I’m really glad nothing happened.

…But really.

I placed my hands on Dokan’s shoulders and squeezed with all my might.

“…Never again.”

Even with my weaker strength, I was able to pull Dokan down to my eye level.

Perhaps he thought he had gone a bit too far; I could see a hint of regret in his expression. But I still couldn’t forgive him.

“Pulling such a stunt…”

I seriously thought I was going to die.

“I won’t forgive you.”

Don’t ever do that again.

I stared straight into Dokan’s eyes as I made that intention clear, but that cheeky grin still lingered on his face.

It was like he was wearing a smile and daring me to smack him, which made me want to punch him, but I thought that would be too much.

“Yeah. I’ll remember.”

What’s so funny? There’s no goodnight for you today. I dropped Dokan as if I was tossing him aside and returned to my room.

If he had at least held me back, I would have considered forgiving him a bit, but he let me go so cleanly that it made me angrier.

…What a despicable guy.

I had a feeling tonight’s sleep would be a bit restless.

—

I felt like I had played a pretty nasty prank on Hoyeon.

Even now, her shoulder that I had grabbed was aching. It had been a long time since Hoyeon had gotten this mad since the gym incident.

But she wasn’t frozen like last time.

That’s because I didn’t feel any intent to genuinely kill coming from her like a Black Wolf.

After feeling a real murder intent directed at me, her pressure felt bearable.

So this time, even with her eyes seeming to glow yellow with rage, I managed to keep my composure.

Maybe it was just that I had gotten stronger by receiving that magic. Either way, it was good, but I had to properly apologize to Hoyeon soon.

She definitely seemed to be extremely upset.

Seeing her leave without even saying goodbye made it clear. I thought that smiling while trying to communicate I wouldn’t mean her any harm backfired.

Yet, it felt nice that Hoyeon got mad over such behavior. It was proof she truly cared about me, and I couldn’t dislike that.

…Once again, I summoned the pseudo-magic and focused it on my shoulder.

The magic that squirmed around and covered the wounded area quickly healed the shoulder that Hoyeon had bruised.

It seemed to have immense strength, likely because she was of a beastkin type.

She looked like someone who had no connection to sports, so where did that strength come from?

No matter what I did, I couldn’t think of a way to dodge the upcoming fight with Jeongho; it was already distant from my mind.

How was I supposed to beat Jeongho, who had defeated the Black Wolf? Suddenly, I wanted to complain to the author about the messed-up power balance.

But complaining wouldn’t change anything. The only option was for me to become stronger.

Especially for the sake of Hoyeon.

As for the harem… I’ll leave that to my future self. Honestly, I didn’t have a method or confidence in that right now.

But then how was I going to deal with Byeolbi’s situation? A voice in my heart echoed that question, but it was amusing to think about establishing a harem when I hadn’t even managed to protect Hoyeon properly.

With the events from the original story looking uncertain now, the only thing I could trust was my own strength.

More importantly, I had to pacify the sulking Hoyeon.

Tomorrow morning, I’ll wake up early and buy her some strawberry milk. Considering the quality sold at Amauros Academy, it should be top-notch.

The price too.

But if it could appease Hoyeon’s anger, it might be worth it, wouldn’t it?

With that thought in mind, I went to bed. The next morning, I headed to the convenience store.

The sun was already high in the sky, making it clear that breakfast time had long past.

It seemed I had become too accustomed to Hoyeon waking me up every morning over the past month.

Putting that aside, I washed up a bit before heading to the convenience store.

It had an outrageous price of ten silver coins, but thinking about Hoyeon’s happy face made it bearable.

I couldn’t understand how a single bottle of strawberry milk could cost as much as several pet supplies, but since it was an academy frequented by nobles, I could only guess.

Living off the money I received from Hoyeon and doing errands for the professors had become quite taxing for me.

In the original story, I was supposed to make direct contact with the principal, yet nobody aside from Hoyeon and Anya had approached me until now.

Anyway. After buying the strawberry milk for Hoyeon, I knocked on her door.

“Hoyeon. I brought strawberry milk.”

Normally, I would have received a sharp response immediately, but this time there was silence for a while. Maybe it was more serious than I thought.

I heard some crashing sounds, and soon, Hoyeon opened the door.

“…Did you buy this for me? How thoughtful. Now, hand it over.”

“Before that… could you accept one more thing from me?”

Seeing her use the princess-like manner of speaking, which was one of the signs she was angry, it didn’t seem like she was about to forgive me easily.

Though she was already wagging her tail slowly, indicating that she was feeling better.

“…If you were talking about something else, what is it?”

“An apology… would you accept one?”

Honestly, given the current state, I had my doubts about whether she would accept it, but it would be better than not trying.

“…Hmph. I don’t need an apology. Just hurry up and hand over the strawberry milk.”

It seemed she was not inclined to forgive easily. I had a hunch about that from the moment she used the princess tone, but I tried anyway.

“Yes. Here, strawberry milk. Then I’ll take my leave.”

Just as I was about to leave, thinking that I should get out of her way before she got upset,

“…Wait. Don’t go.”